Innovative zinc-based batteries

Abstract

The demand for high-performance, affordable, and safe energy storage solutions is growing, driven in partby the incorporation of fluctuating electricity sources like wind turbines and solar cells in the electric grid.Batteries offer such a storage solution in both distributed systems such as households and large-scaleindustrial systems. The quest for more resource-efficient alternatives to lithium-ion batteries is on its way tomeet the increasing demand. Zinc batteries are particularly ecologically friendly due to their use of abundantraw materials and their facile recyclability. High energy densities add to the benefits of this technology.These advantages stem from the use of zinc metal electrodes in combination with effective and affordableaqueous electrolytes. Zinc battery types are distinguished by their cathode materials and electrolytic chargecarriers. Zinc-air batteries work with oxygen from air and have the potential to offer the highest energydensities. Zinc-flow batteries could enable large scale battery storage. Zinc-ion batteries are a more recentdevelopment which promise large power densities and long cycle lives. In this review, these technologiesare discussed in detail. We summarize the development status of each technology, criticize typicaldeficiencies of current studies, discuss technological challenges, and highlight promising future research directions.